Save Me (Taken Series Book 1)

by Cannavina, Whitney

  “Forrest? Is he here? Does he know I’m here? When is he going to get me? I can’t stay here any longer. A girl says that my teacher is keeping me and that when he takes me from here I’ll never be found again. What if his partner, they call him ‘the boss’ comes? I need to get out of here before one of them comes. I need to go home. You can’t let him take me?” I start to sob at the end of my rant with fear and hope rolled into one. I fear that ‘the boss’ or Mr. Morris will arrive before I get out of here and stop my escape and at the same time I have hope that this is finally the moment where I’m saved.

  “Yes Forrest. You mentioned ‘the boss’. Did you get his name? Did you see him?” Why is he worried about that? He needs to worry about getting me out of here. If he wants to know who ‘the boss’ is he needs to ask the girl I talked to earlier.

  “I don’t know who ‘the boss’ is. I haven’t seen him yet. The girl mentioned him as a partner to Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris was my P.E. teacher and he kidnapped me and kept me in a cell somewhere. He drugged me before we got there and he drugged me again when he brought me here. I never knew he wanted me, then the girl said that he’s wanted me for a while. She also said that this place sells people. Is that true? Oh my god. You have to help her. What if she gets sold too? Call Forrest. Get him here and he will help. I know he will. Please don’t leave me here!” I couldn’t stop the crying. I was so close to escape I could taste it. I could almost feel Forrest’s arms wrapped around me. I could almost feel the relief of when my parents see me and their tears of joy. I could almost feel love from Damon and the rest of my family and friends when I arrive home safely. Almost.

  “I can’t take you home just yet. I just needed to make sure you were alright. I still need to call Forrest to help me get you out of here safely without getting caught. But I assure you it will be soon. See?” He shows me the text to Forrest about my location and that I am here. I sag with relief at knowing that Forrest knows where I am but I need him to hurry before Mr. Morris or ‘the boss’ arrive. With ‘the boss’ being Mr. Morris’ partner he could come here at any time and stop me from leaving. I need Forrest to hurry and get me out of here.

  “We need to hurry. Tell him to hurry. I’ll do whatever you need just as long as you hurry and get me out of here. Then you need to save the girl that I talked to.”

  “One thing at a time. You’re our first priority. Forrest would kill me if I didn’t get you out first. The other girls are safe for now because they are to be auctioned off in a few days’ time and I already have people ready to buy them and take them home to their families.”

  “You know about this place?” I ask incredulously. Why if he knows about this place is it still here with people being sold like cattle? “Why haven’t you shut this place down? What are you really doing here?”

  “Calm down. I work undercover trying to catch the guy that runs this operation. I can’t shut it down or else we can’t catch him and he sets up shop somewhere else and we have to start all over. We are so close to catching him and when we do this all stops. Forrest can tell you more after we get you out of here. Now what I need you to do…”

  “Forrest knows about this place? Is he a part of this? He can’t be. He’s a good person. I know he would never sell people like this. What does he have to do with this?” I interrupt him with my questions. I should probably listen to what he has to say but I’m in shock that Forrest is a part of this vile place. Did he know about me being kidnapped and is just trying to save face? No he couldn’t because he’s not a bad person and he cares for me. He would never let anyone hurt me. With that thought, I wonder what he has to do with a place like this.

  “No he is not a part of this like you think. He’s undercover too, but working a different angle. I’ll let him explain later when you see him but first you need to listen closely as I tell you what’s going to happen. In one hour the fights will be finished and your teacher will be back here to get you. Forrest is going to leave 10 minutes before it ends and race here to get to you first. We have to work fast so you need to be ready to go when I open that door. You will leave everything as is and if someone comes to see you, don’t speak about any of this. Not even to the girl you were talking with earlier, you got me?” I nod my head and wait for more instructions. I’m excited and scared for what’s going to happen. “Good. When you leave here you will not be going home right away…”

  “What!” He holds his hand up to stop me from saying anything further. Why wouldn’t I go home? Isn’t the point of this whole escape is to take me home?

  “No you won’t go home right away. Your teacher and ‘the boss’ will be looking for you once they realize your gone and be on a rampage searching so Forrest has to hide you out for a few days. After they calm down and we don’t feel their eyes on us, I will send in a detective to your hideout who will take your statement, arrest your teacher and hopefully by then we will also have the ‘the boss’ in custody. Then you will be taken back to your family and more will be explained of what’s to come. I trust Forrest will take good care of you and you will be safe with him after we get you out.” Oh god. I want to see my family but I understand why I can’t just yet. It just sucks. At least I’ll have Forrest.

  “Ok. I can do that. I trust Forrest. I can wait a few days. It will all be ok. Everything will be ok.” I’m rambling trying to calm myself. I wring my hands nervously. Soon this will all be just a terrible dream.

  “Tell him I love him if this doesn’t work out. Please. Just tell Forrest I love him and I’m sorry and tell my family. Just in case.” Even though I have hope that I will be out of this mess in less than an hour, I know to expect the worst and I can’t go another second without Forrest knowing how I feel if I don’t make it out.

  “There’s no need for serious goodbye confessions. Everything will work out, ok?” I nod my head and stare at him hoping he’s right. He looks into my eyes searching for something before nodding his head giving me a small smile to reassure me. “Ok. I need to go and look the part but just know that you’re safe now and you’ll be home soon.” He gets up and leaves but not before giving me one more reassuring smile then slips out the door and locking it with a click making it seem as if I didn’t just get the best life changing news.

  I lay back down on the mattress with a smile on my face, excited at the prospect of going home soon. I just hope it’s not too good to be true. I wait for the time to come for my escape and imagine what kind of state my family will be in when they finally see me again. I hope they are ok. I hope they didn’t hole up in their rooms and not live their life. As much as I missed them and as much as I’m sure they missed me I would never wish for my family to sulk around waiting for me. Of course if the situation were reversed and it was one of them who was kidnapped I would probably be the same way or maybe I would be out looking for them. Maybe I would follow leads like a detective and find whoever took my family. Now that I think about it I doubt that they just sat back and waited. I know for a fact that my brother and Forrest wouldn’t just sit around hoping for word of my whereabouts. They would be out knocking on every door trying to find me. My dad is probably doing the same but using his connections with his customers, some are pretty shady, for any news and my mom is most likely the only one sitting at home waiting for the phone call saying I’ve been found.

  I imagine my escape and seeing the look on Forrest’s face when he sees me. He’ll look at me with love, worry and relief. Maybe he will have tears ready to spill but never do. I’ll run into his arms and he’ll hug me tight never wanting to let me go. He’ll kiss my forehead then my nose, my cheeks, then my lips in a raw and passionate kiss. His hands will roam my body checking to see if I’m real, safe and uninjured. His fingers will slide between mine and squeeze with reassurance as we run into the night and away from my nightmare to an underground hideout that only he knows about. There will be no words spoken as we hide in this safe house. We’ll sit down and hold onto each other as I cry with happiness and relief and he laughs
his deep throaty laugh at how blissful he is to have me back.

  I will never have a better chance to tell him of my feelings than at that moment. I’ll tell him how scared I was and what happened to me and how after being taken I was sorry that I never told him of my true feelings not caring if he reciprocates them or not. And since this is my dream he will tell me how much in love he is with me and wished he could have said so sooner that he doesn’t care what anyone else says or thinks, he just wants to be with me. We will spend several days talking, laughing, kissing and touching before going home and seeing my family and repeating the ‘I missed you’ and ‘I love you’ and the ‘I’m sorry’ to Damon and my parents for worrying them. I skipped over the part where I have to retell the story to the police detective because I don’t want to ruin my dream with negativity. I just hope my dream will be similar to reality. That things could really be that easy.

  I didn’t realize how long I imagined my homecoming for but it must have been a while because the door swings open causing me to jump and squeak in fear before I realize it’s the same guy from earlier.

  “Let’s go. Hurry up. We need to move fast. Your teacher just left and will be here within five minutes and you need to be already on your way.” He motions with his hand to get my ass moving and I quickly get up tripping on my way to the door. My breathing is erratic, my heart feels like it’s going to burst from my chest it’s beating so hard. Tears are ready to spill down my face with elation but I don’t let them as I follow behind this man who is helping me. I trip on the lip of a throw rug in the hall as we rush down the hall nearly falling into the back of the guy but he turns swiftly catching me in time. I didn’t realize he was paying that close attention to see me falling. The hall turns into a living room of sorts making me think we’re in someone’s house but who’s I don’t know. It could be Mr. Morris’ house or his partner, ‘the boss’, or it could be somebody completely different.

  The house is very tidy and looks dark with passionate colors. It’s like something you’d imagine for a romantic setting with the deep reds, dark greys and charcoal blacks accenting the walls. There are three doors, two that push open and one with a handle but I don’t pay too close attention as we rush through to the front door. Not once did I notice anyone else there and I wonder where everyone was. Were they hiding in the rooms or locked up in them? Or was the house empty? No, it couldn’t be empty because the girl I talked to earlier was here somewhere.

  Now normally when escaping I figured it would be better to run out the back door, jump a fence and go through the other persons yard and leave that way to avoid getting caught but apparently I watch too much TV. When I step through the front door and out onto the porch I notice a cars headlights shining brightly at the front door as the guy grabs my hand and pulls me towards it. I’m a little hesitant and resist at first until the driver’s side door opens and another man steps out. As soon as I realize who it is I push past the guy helping me escape and run to the car hopping into the passenger seat. I can jump into Forrest’s arms later after we make it to our safe hideout. I buckle up as the guy who got me out talks to Forrest quickly and quietly. I can’t understand what he is telling him but Forrest doesn’t speak, just nods his head before shaking the guys hand and climbing into the drivers’ seat.

  He doesn’t speak, he doesn’t look at me or touch me as he backs out of the drive and takes off down the street heading to who knows where. He doesn’t stop at the stop signs just plows through them looking both ways beforehand to make sure nobody is going through them all the while taking turns at lightning speeds making me grip the handle of the door and my seat, glad that I wore my seat belt. I’m afraid to open my mouth and speak or hell, even scream, because he’s scaring me right now and I don’t want to distract him in case it causes us to crash. We drive in complete silence for about twenty minutes before pulling up to a gated community. Forrest enters a number into the pin box and the gates open quietly. He pulls the car through stopping after he passes the gates to check and see if anyone followed. At least I’m assuming that’s why. Forrest drives slowly through the neighborhood turning on a few different streets until it dead ends into a cul-de-sac. He goes to the house at the very end and the garage door opens as he hits a button on the visor and pulls the car in shutting the engine off once the door shuts.

  We sit there in silence. Complete and utter silence. Well this was not how I imagined my homecoming with Forrest would be like.

  Chapter 6

  Forrest

  When I got the text that it was Sierra at the house her teacher frequents, I knew I needed to act fast. I was working the fight scene making my rounds like always as I waited impatiently for my buddy to confirm the girl’s identity who was brought in by Jeremy Morris earlier. I’m sure with the fury rolling off of me after reading his confirmation message and shoving my phone in my pocket, everyone probably thought I was going to explode and kill the next guy who looked at me with my bare hands. I was raging out curses and shaking with the hold I had on myself from literally shredding Jeremy Morris with my bare hands.

  I’ve never noticed him before at the underground fights so I was surprised when I saw him leaning in close to a few regulars speaking in what looked like impatience and anger between all of them. Naturally I was suspicious so I made sure to slow my gait and look as if I was just checking on the fight going on only a few feet away while I tried to listen in on their conversation. With all the yelling from the surrounding crowd it was hard to hear much of it but from what I did hear was that Jeremy Morris is going to be out of touch for a little while and the thugs were non to happy about it.

  These guys he was talking to are not someone a teacher would normally be associated with so I wonder what exactly he has in common with these guys. Is he a buyer, seller, or partner? The guys are under surveillance for drug trafficking and have recently been dipping their toes into sex trafficking and prostitution with buying a few girls here and there. I’m not too familiar with their rank but I do know they are pretty high up and answer to only one guy who is part of the mob. And if rumors are true, then the guy they answer to is also trying to work with the “boss” who runs sex trafficking locally and who is also the guy we are trying to catch that nobody seems to know the identity of. So why is Jeremy Morris talking to them and what does he have to do with Sierra’s abduction? Is he just a pawn to bring her in or is he keeping her for himself? Is he ‘the boss’ that we’ve been looking for?

  I knew I needed to move fast because Jeremy is supposed to be back to get Sierra and I need to get her out of that house first. I take one last look at Jeremy and stride out with a look of determination that has people quickly moving out of my way for fear of getting pummeled. Once I reach my car, I quickly start it and throw it in gear, pealing out of the lot feeling relief, fear and longing to have my baby girl in my arms again. As I make my way over to the house breaking all the driving laws, I dial my boss and let him know the situation so he can handle the aftermath of what’s about to go down. He knows there is no way to stop me from getting Sierra so there is no argument as he agrees to send backup and to confirm the identity of the man who dropped off Sierra. Since I already know without a doubt that it’s Jeremy I explain what happened so far and let them know I will be in hiding for a few days until we know he has been arrested.

  I don’t remember the drive over, being in a fog just trying to get to Sierra as fast as possible, that I hope I didn’t cause any accidents but not caring if I did because I wouldn’t have stopped. As I pull into the drive and throw the car in park not even bothering to turn it off, nerves kick in as I rush to the door and knock. My friend who is an undercover cop opens it slightly to see who it is before widening it all the way for me to step in.

  “Dude. You took long enough. We need to get her out of here now. That guy who brought her in is on his way back so you don’t have much time.” He says this in a rush as he jogs down to the end of the hall not really checking if I’m behind him or not. />
  “Sorry. I saw that Jeremy Morris guy at the warehouse tonight talking to a couple thugs so I wanted to hear what they were discussing.”

  “Well your girl’s here. I made sure to tell her to be ready when you got here so you guys could get out quick. My guy says he was leaving just after you did so we need to hurry.”

  “Shit.” I turn on my heels and run back out of the house to my car yelling to my buddy that I’ll keep watch. He knows what to do and he will get Sierra out safely while I distract this guy if he comes before Sierra makes it out.

  I sit in the driver’s seat ready to leave looking behind me to take watch and turn at the sound of the front door opening. The air in my lungs rushes out of me with relief to have Sierra in my sights. I step out of the car seeing her hesitance and once she sees it’s me she rushes to the passenger side and jumps in. My buddy says a few words to me about what Sierra told him before I shake his hand thanking him for keeping an eye on her while she was there and to let me know of any mores news he hears later. Once I take my seat again, I realize don’t know what to say or how to act because I don’t know what she’s been through. I don’t wait for her to buckle up as I back out before stomping on the gas and head the opposite way I came just as a car turns on the street heading straight for the house Sierra was in. I know it’s Mr. Morris and I hope he didn’t notice me as more than just a passing car.

  I have a million questions and I don’t know where to begin. Is she ok? Did he hurt her? Did he touch her? Did he defile her? These all cause bile to rise up my throat at the thought of anything happening to her and I want to kill the guy before I even have the answers to my questions.